Calendar
July
Retreat | On-Land
Sunday, July 28 | 10:00 AM - 4:00 PM
Mindfulness, Awareness, and Non-Duality
Awareness is a natural quality of the mind that allows you to be present with clarity, insight and freedom. In this silent meditation retreat we explore this quality of awareness: what it is, and how to recognize, cultivate, and abide in it. We inquire into what interferes with stabilizing in awareness both in meditation and in daily activity. As mindfulness grows, we find an effortless, clear, and radiant awareness in every moment, leading to insight, wellbeing, and peace.
Mark Coleman
Retreat | On-Land
July 29 - August 4, 2024 | Monday - Sunday | 6 nights
The Spirit of Insight, Dharma & Awakening
The essence of Buddhist practice is embodying the Dharma experientially. In this retreat we will use mindfulness meditation to study our experiential reality within all our activities, including meditation, movement, eating, resting, and listening. When we are present and investigate our experiential reality moment by moment, insight arises, and the Dharma reveals itself within our body, heart, and mind. As the living, embodied truth unfolds, we awaken to the Buddha within and discover the depth and breadth of our own human potential.
August
Retreat | On-Land | Hybrid
Saturday, August 3 | 10:00 AM - 4:00 PM
How to be a Bodhisattva: Zen Insights on the Way of Compassion
In this daylong retreat, we’ll explore teachings about the Bodhisattva path—the way of friendliness and compassion—and we’ll study a short text of Dogen, the 13th Century founder of Soto Zen, called “The Bodhisattva’s Four Methods of Guidance.” This poetic text offers four practices designed to awaken the bodhisattva spirit: generosity, kind speech, beneficial action, and identity action. Together, we’ll spend time experiencing Dogen’s words through meditation and writing.
Norman Fischer
Retreat | Online
Saturday, August 3 | 10:00 AM - 4:00 PM
How to be a Bodhisattva: Zen Insights on the Way of Compassion
In this daylong retreat, we’ll explore teachings about the Bodhisattva path—the way of friendliness and compassion—and we’ll study a short text of Dogen, the 13th Century founder of Soto Zen, called “The Bodhisattva’s Four Methods of Guidance.” This poetic text offers four practices designed to awaken the bodhisattva spirit: generosity, kind speech, beneficial action, and identity action. Together, we’ll spend time experiencing Dogen’s words through meditation and writing.
Norman Fischer
Retreat | Online | Hybrid
Sunday, August 4 | 10:00 AM - 4:00 PM
Faith in Yourself: Compassion Practices for Cultivating Freedom from Self-Doubt
5 CE Credits. Many of us find it hard to believe that we have what it takes to do this practice. Seeing into this doubt with compassion and wisdom can not only help us be free from the pain it causes, but it can open us to the possibility of trusting ourselves and all aspects of our experience. This day of practice is an invitation to understand and find freedom from self-doubt and tap into the fullness of our potential in this life.
Retreat | On-Land | Hybrid
Sunday, August 4 | 10:00 AM - 4:00 PM
Faith in Yourself: Compassion Practices for Cultivating Freedom from Self-Doubt
5 CE Credits. Many of us find it hard to believe that we have what it takes to do this practice. Seeing into this doubt with compassion and wisdom can not only help us be free from the pain it causes, but it can open us to the possibility of trusting ourselves and all aspects of our experience. This day of practice is an invitation to understand and find freedom from self-doubt and tap into the fullness of our potential in this life.
Retreat | On-Land
August 5 - August 10, 2024 | Monday - Saturday | 5 nights
Young Adult Insight Meditation Retreat
Open to ages 18-32. Come practice silent mindfulness and Insight Meditation in community with your peers. Give yourself a break from constant overstimulation and external demands as we create a supportive space for cultivating greater calm, spaciousness, and presence. Together we will explore the ancient practices of guided and silent sitting, walking, and heart meditations, along with movement, teacher meetings, and Dharma talks. Over the course of the week, we will extend these practices until the entire day is one of steady, continuous awareness.
Retreat | On-Land
Saturday, August 10 | 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Sacred Sounds Sessions: Jai Uttal
Spirit Rock invites you to experience the transformative power of our inaugural Sacred Sounds Sessions, starting this summer! Each date will feature a different musical artist who has devoted their professional life to preserving, creating, and sharing sacred music. Join us for a nourishing combination of healing sound, meditation, an optional bring-your-own picnic outside in nature, and an opportunity to (re)connect with sangha on our stunning Spirit Rock land. Gates will open two hours earlier to allow enough time to picnic prior to the program.
Jai Uttal
Retreat | On-Land
August 11 - August 18, 2024 | Sunday - Sunday | 7 nights
The Elements: Cultivating an Embodied Experience of Emptiness and Fullness
A fundamental aspect of establishing embodied mindfulness involves contemplations of the elements—earth, water, fire, air, and space. These five elements are universal, and when we contemplate them in relation to the body, they may bring a cooling of the grasping mind and profound realizations of emptiness and fullness. In contemplating the elements and their interrelationship, we will allow them to support the non-conceptual knowing from which insights naturally arise. This retreat includes guided and silent meditations, movement, and teacher meetings.
Retreat | Online
Sunday, August 11 | 6:00 PM - 7:30 PM
Everything Is Practice: A Guide for Insight Meditation Retreats
Join us for an inspiring evening with our beloved Gil Fronsdal, who will share his insights from decades of experience teaching silent meditation retreats, as well as guiding others in retreat practice. With roots in both the Insight and Zen traditions, Gil will draw on teachings from his latest book, Everything is Practice: A Guide for Insight Meditation Retreats. Our time together will include a brief guided meditation, reflections, and Q&A.
Gil Fronsdal
Retreat | Online
Saturday, August 17 | 9:30 AM - 4:30 PM
Poetry that Opens the Dharma Heart to Compassion and Insight
During this daylong retreat, our usual sitting and walking practices will be informed by periods of reading poetry to each other. Each poem is carefully chosen by Phillip Moffitt with an eye toward selections that point us to Dharma insights. Poems of this nature can comfort us and inspire us to take our meditation understandings into our daily life such that we see the world through Dharma eyes and respond from the Dharma heart.
Phillip Moffitt
Retreat | On-Land
August 18 - August 27, 2024 | Sunday - Tuesday | 9 nights
Summer Lovingkindness Retreat
The Buddha’s teachings on the four divine sanctuaries include meditations on universal friendliness, compassion, altruistic joy, and equanimity. Focusing on purification and concentration, these divine sanctuaries aid our ability to find inner peace and powerfully engage with the world. This retreat deepens our understanding of selfless love and how it ends suffering. Experienced retreatants are encouraged to combine this retreat with the previous Elements retreat to further develop concentration, purify the heart, and learn to integrate these two forms of meditation.
Tempel Smith
Tuere Sala
Anushka Fernandopulle
Bonnie Duran
John Martin
Kristina Baré
Rasika Link
Retreat | Online
Sunday, August 18 | 10:00 AM - 1:00 PM
Staying Open at the Edge of Experience
Finding freedom in the midst of intense experience is possible when our hearts remain open right at the edge of the unfolding. This process is facilitated by our recognition of our essential nature from which insight, tenderness, compassion, and deep understanding arise. Together—through movement, stillness, and inquiry—we will explore ways to recognize and abide in this essential nature.
Margarita Loinaz
Retreat | Online
Saturday, August 24 | 10:00 AM - 4:00 PM
The Middle Way to Financial Well-Being
Work and money are challenging arenas that offer fertile territory for applying the wisdom of the Dharma. Using Buddhist practices, neuroscience, and emotional intelligence, we will cultivate favorable mindsets for transforming our relationship with work and money.
This program invites you to explore your authentic relationship to work and money, independent of conditioning, and to apply this authenticity to your real-life decisions within a spacious, non-judgmental container. Who would you be if you had a new relationship with work/money?
Retreat | Online | Hybrid
Sunday, August 25 | 9:00 AM - 4:30 PM
Perspectives on Buddhist Practice from Ajahn Chah: Virtue, Relinquishment, Awareness, and Liberation
Ajahn Pasanno spent many years training with Ajahn Chah, inheriting a unique perspective including some essential parts of the Buddha's teachings that haven’t fully made their way into Western Buddhist culture. These include Ajahn Chah's emphasis on virtue, relinquishment, the quality of awareness, and full liberation as the potential result of committed Dhamma practice. Throughout this daylong, Ajahn Pasanno will reflect on how these teachings have guided his practice through stories, reflections, periods of meditation, and the opportunity for questions.
Ajahn Pasanno
Retreat | On-Land | Hybrid
Sunday, August 25 | 9:00 AM - 4:30 PM
Perspectives on Buddhist Practice from Ajahn Chah: Virtue, Relinquishment, Awareness, and Liberation
Ajahn Pasanno spent many years training with Ajahn Chah, inheriting a unique perspective including some essential parts of the Buddha's teachings that haven’t fully made their way into Western Buddhist culture. These include Ajahn Chah's emphasis on virtue, relinquishment, the quality of awareness, and full liberation as the potential result of committed Dhamma practice. Throughout this daylong, Ajahn Pasanno will reflect on how these teachings have guided his practice through stories, reflections, periods of meditation, and the opportunity for questions.
Ajahn Pasanno
Retreat | On-Land
August 28 - September 2, 2024 | Wednesday - Monday | 5 nights
Labor Day Insight Meditation Retreat
This retreat emphasizes quieting the mind, opening the heart, and developing clarity and depth of practice. Traditional instructions will be combined with a spirit of lovingkindness, and our time together will include a schedule of silent sitting and walking periods, guided Yoga/movement sessions, as well as practice meetings with teachers and daily Dharma talks. This retreat is for experienced as well as new students.
September
Retreat | On-Land
September 2 - September 5, 2024 | Monday - Thursday | 3 nights
Coming Home to Ourselves
Come home to yourself with the simple and direct practice of being present for your experience. Insight Meditation allows the restless heart to settle through the gentle practice of repeatedly connecting with and returning to the here and now. It is here in the present moment where we discover the peace and well-being we yearn for. This retreat is suitable for beginners as well as experienced practitioners and is silent except for practice instructions, teacher-led Q&A, and practice discussions.
Retreat | On-Land
September 5 - September 8, 2024 | Thursday - Sunday | 3 nights
The Doorway to Freedom and Peace: The Three Characteristics
The radical premise of the Buddha’s teaching is that realizing the truth—what Zen teacher Shunryu Suzuki called "things-as-it-is"—is the doorway to freedom and peace. During this retreat, we will engage mindfulness and compassion to turn toward the living truth that arises each moment, with an emphasis on the Three Characteristics of Reality: all things are impermanent (aniccā), ultimately unreliable (dukkha), and ownerless (anattā). Our time will include silent meditation and movement along with instructions, Dharma talks, and meetings with teachers.
Retreat | On-Land | Hybrid
Saturday, September 7 | 10:00 AM - 1:00 PM
Inner Peace and Outer Action for Challenging Times: Practices to Cultivate Resilience
3 CE Credits. We live in a time of great promise and great peril. How can we respond to threats and injustices with effective action, while also preserving our own compassion, inner balance, and well-being? Together, we'll explore answers to this question, informed by practical brain science. This workshop will emphasize experiential practice, meeting ourselves where we are, and learning together how to walk more evenly on uneven ground. Our time together will include guided meditation, discussion, and Q&A.
Rick Hanson
Retreat | Online | Hybrid
Saturday, September 7 | 10:00 AM - 1:00 PM
Inner Peace and Outer Action for Challenging Times: Practices to Cultivate Resilience
3 CE Credits. We live in a time of great promise and great peril. How can we respond to threats and injustices with effective action, while also preserving our own compassion, inner balance, and well-being? Together, we'll explore answers to this question, informed by practical brain science. This workshop will emphasize experiential practice, meeting ourselves where we are, and learning together how to walk more evenly on uneven ground. Our time together will include guided meditation, discussion, and Q&A.
Rick Hanson
Retreat | On-Land
September 9 - September 13, 2024 | Monday - Friday | 4 nights
Founders Retreat: Insight Meditation with the Spirit Rock Founding Teachers
Spirit Rock invites you to a special Insight Meditation Retreat with senior Spirit Rock teachers who have been here since the beginning. This retreat emphasizes quieting the mind, opening the heart, and developing clarity and depth of practice. Traditional instructions based on the Foundations of Mindfulness will be combined with daily mettā (lovingkindness) practice, silent sitting and walking periods, guided movement sessions, practice meetings with teachers, and daily Dharma talks.
Retreat | On-Land
September 14 - September 18, 2024 | Saturday - Wednesday | 4 nights
Aging, Dying, & Awakening
Open to all ages. In this retreat, we’ll explore aging and dying from the Buddhist perspective of meditative practice and awakening. Together, we'll examine aging and death in our conventional lives and see what happens as we normalize these processes as part of the great letting go. How might this “letting go” reveal the awakened heart? This retreat will include meditation instructions, Dharma talks, meetings with teachers, and a daily period of contemplative inquiry during which we will investigate our own relationship to death. Otherwise, this retreat is silent outside of the mentioned above periods.
Retreat | Online
September 14 - September 15, 2024 | Saturday - Sunday | 10:00 AM - 1:00 PM
Self-Compassion: Opening Your Heart to Yourself
6 CE Credits. This workshop will focus on expanding your sense of who you are, so you can open your heart to yourself. Together, we will share tools for responding in a compassionate way whenever we suffer, and explore strategies for soothing and comforting ourselves so we can handle difficult emotions with greater ease. Through lecture, discussion, meditation, and experiential exercises, you will learn how to motivate change with kindness and gain concrete tools for putting self-compassion into practice in your daily life.
Kristin Neff
Retreat | On-Land
September 19 - September 25, 2024 | Thursday - Wednesday | 6 nights
Spiritual Sanctuary: A Women's Liberation Retreat
Open to all self-identified Women. We welcome all who identify as women, as well as non-binary folks who feel nourished in spaces centering women.
We live in times of increasing pressure, which can be experienced as intensity, stress, limitation, or dissatisfaction. The Four Noble Truths remind us that pressure is an unavoidable part of life, and that freedom is possible within it. This retreat offers a space in which practitioners can choose rest, renewal, and liberation. Together we will practice in silence, integrating movement and stillness, outdoor practice, and Dharma talks that lift up women’s journeys of awakening from a diversity of lineages and traditions.
Retreat | On-Land
September 26 - September 30, 2024 | Thursday - Monday | 4 nights
What the Buddha Taught
Held in noble silence and open to all levels of experience, this retreat explores ancient Buddhist practices, stories, and insights while considering the relevance of these 2500-year-old teachings to our contemporary lives. Together we will weave mindfulness into our practices of sitting, walking, eating, and basic daily activities. The renunciation of technology, books, entertainment, and other aspects of regular life will facilitate the development of insight that will benefit our everyday practice as we return to our modern lives.
Retreat | Online | Hybrid
Saturday, September 28 | 10:00 AM - 4:30 PM
Love and Relationship: The Great Spiritual Practice
We are always in relationship—with ourselves, partners, family, and the community and world around us. Join us for a day of heartfelt teachings and practices, as Trudy and Jack share what’s helped them over a lifetime of practice. At this time in our lives and in the world, we need the practices of wisdom and love, skill and communion. As we learn the skills of love with those nearby, we can learn to expand this practice to the world beyond.
Retreat | On-Land | Hybrid
Saturday, September 28 | 10:00 AM - 4:30 PM
Love and Relationship: The Great Spiritual Practice
We are always in relationship—with ourselves, partners, family, and the community and world around us. Join us for a day of heartfelt teachings and practices, as Trudy and Jack share what’s helped them over a lifetime of practice. At this time in our lives and in the world, we need the practices of wisdom and love, skill and communion. As we learn the skills of love with those nearby, we can learn to expand this practice to the world beyond.
October
Retreat | On-Land
October 1 - October 10, 2024 | Tuesday - Thursday | 9 nights
Naturally Arising Samādhi [Concentration]
This retreat develops concentration through specific meditative practices that utilize the mind’s natural capacity to become collected and unified. Our focus will be on developing concentration; exploring the experience of a concentrated and contented mind as a natural, mysterious, and beneficial phenomena; and utilizing concentration during Insight practice. The primary teaching method will be two daily guided 45-60 minute meditations, and participants are strongly encouraged to listen to guided meditations ahead of time to experience this style of practice.
Retreat | On-Land
Sunday, October 6 | 10:00 AM - 4:00 PM
Freeing Yourself from the Inner Critic with Mindfulness & Compassion
5 CE Credits. Are you impacted by the tormenting self-critical mind and feeling the negative effects of self-judgment? Join us for a day of exploring how to be more free from the challenge of the inner critic. Our time together will include a combination of talks and interactive exercises, along with explorations of mindfulness and lovingkindness techniques and practices. Emphasizing the importance of not taking ourselves too seriously, this will be a practical and experiential retreat taught with lightness, compassion, and humor.
Mark Coleman